Serenade of Bullets and Bloodshed
by A Road Unturning
Summary: It's some kind of cosmic joke, this freeze dried romance that builds and fattens and finally folds between them. Nina and Jin. Written as an unofficial answer to the 1sentence challenge on LiveJournal.


_Disclaimer – I don't own Tekken._

_These prompts are taken from the 1sentence challenge on LiveJournal, under the theme set "Beta." This is an unofficial answer to this challenge. One of these sentences take place in a skewed AU in alternative Vertigo!verse, but yeah, it's just one. ^.^  
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_I've got a few more of these lined up. You can possibly see a pattern forming. XD_

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_Serenade of Bullets and Bloodshed_

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**#01 - Walking **

The mountain path is tricky underfoot, but Jin moves with all the effortlessness of a boy born and bred in the wilderness, and as soon as the observation leaves her lips the air is suddenly stung and a shadow spills beneath his eyes.

**#02 - Waltz **

It's a basic pleasantry at one of Kazama's banquets, but there is something disturbingly right about how his palm fits firm on her hip.

**#03 - Wishes **

She dislikes the snow for reasons she refuses to disclose, so he silently books their next holiday in the Bahamas and she finally begins to smile again.

**#04 - Wonder **

He allows his eyes to linger on the tips of her fingers wound deep into the sheets and the mussed crown of her hair, damp with sweat, sticking to the rise of his shoulder.

**#05 - Worry **

She tries to give him an accurate report through the bruises and blood, but he interrupts her and won't let her continue until she has been seen by the military medic.

**#06 - Whimsy **

Ling Xiaoyu is strawberry bubblegum that has been chewed too long and stretched too far, and Nina patiently waits for the infatuation to wane so Jin no longer has to fight the sentiments of a lost child.

**#07 - Waste/Wasteland **

The desert is nothing to her but a scorch that burns through the soles of her leather sling backs, but she follows him into it none the less.

**#08 - Whiskey and rum **

They're close, so terribly close, and his eyes are the colour of age old rum and she tastes whiskey on the faint exhale of his breath.

**#09 - War **

The blood and grief of millions clings fast to the ends of their tailcoats, but they breeze through it none the less.

**#10 - Weddings **

The night before Jin is doomed to die, she comes to him in white, and they both smirk at the red lingerie underneath.

**#11 - Birthday **

She thinks Jin has forgotten until she finds a dozen new credit cards on her beside cabinet, alongside a ticket to a five star hotel in Paris, with all shopping expenses included.

**#12 - Blessing **

When the missing woman in white thanks her, Nina shrugs and just says it's her job, even as inky murk laces itself around her ankles.

**#13 - Bias **

He has thousands of skilled soldiers prepared to lie down their lives, but when Jin walks into danger, it is she who stands beside him.

**#14 - Burning **

Breath is a ragged pull through the parting of their lips, and on instinct he rams her down, down into tangled sheets and soft cries, and later he apologizes.

**#15 - Breathing **

His eye is drawn to the slow lift and fall of her chest tightly bound in black silk and silver trim, and when she catches her eye, he looks away.

**#16 - Breaking **

Vermillion cracks beneath his irises, as his nails seem to curl and sharpen and leave welts in her shoulders, but she remains unafraid.

**#17 - Belief **

She'll be there till' the end, for after all, it's what he pays her for.

**#18 - Balloon **

During gun practices, they release balloons as targets, and it really helps when she's scrawled her sister's face across most of them.

**#19 - Balcony **

There was that one time in Malta where they'd had sex on the balcony, and it was terribly cold and uncomfortable, and they both vowed it was an experience they would both be reluctant to revisit.

**#20 - Bane **

He pushes the gun in her hand and orders her to hammer a bullet in his head, but she shrugs and says it would do no good, for he is, after all, a Mishima.

**#21 - Quiet **

Snow and blood, forest and fire; they mull over their pasts, separate and yet still the same, side by side in Jin's bed.

**#22 - Quirks **

She finds him with a stray cat skulking at his ankles, and she rolls her eyes and sighs about Jun's influence and it is one of the few times she sees him actively smile.

**#23 - Question **

They never ask any questions, because their worlds are private and apart, and everything they already share is everything they ever want to know.

**#24 - Quarrel **

Jin is dangerous to so many people, so dangerous, and yet when they disagree on small, stupid things he goes and broods very dangerously (or as she likes to see it, sulking.)

**#25 - Quitting **

He never asks her to leave, even on that one day he loses control and she can barely drag him back from the brink, and that evening she checks her bank balance and sees he's doubled her salary.

**#26 - Jump **

She's knocked out cold, reality a tentative sketch around her senses, but somebody is clasping her close and safe and there is air around her face, for they are propelling through the sky.

**#27 - Jester **

Some thick headed ambassador thinks it's funny to joke about jolly green giants in Jin's presence, and so she slips a cyanide pill in their drink, and also in her sister's, just for good measure.

**#28 - Jousting **

They train together once, but the air is hot and heavy between their colliding fists and they hit and hammer and kick and kiss.

**#29 - Jewel **

"You know what I like," she whispers, between diamonds and drinks.

**#30 - Just **

There is just _this_, just this _thing_ they have, something that hikes the air with a tang that is tangible on the tips of their tongues.

**#31 - Smirk **

Everybody has seen Jin smirk, but she is the only one in recent years who has seen him smile.

**#32 - Sorrow **

She visits the gravestone as snow falls fresh and slow from the sky, as he watches silently from the gates.

**#33 - Stupidity **

Her sister's comments are sordid, silly things, and Nina has no time for a sibling idiotic enough to believe the tabloids.

**#34 - Serenade **

Bullets and bloodshed, their personal serenade, and they've never know anything so beautiful.

**#35 - Sarcasm **

In the dark, he blankly asks her to marry him, and they both smirk at each other over the bed sheets.

**#36 - Sordid **

Jin is never gentle, but neither is she, and in the morning he presses his lips to each new mark on her skin and something flutters behind his eyes.

**#37 - Soliloquy **

He talks sometimes, just talks, in large lonely halls and she sits by and sips her wine and says nothing.

**#38 - Sojourn **

She is a temporary press in his bed, a warm body with arms that make him ache inside, but the destined day draws close and he lets his eyes grow cold and his arms remain empty.

**#39 - Share **

The kitchen boy is handsome in a generic, sweet hearted way (things she has never held in high esteem) but he gasps and becomes giddy beneath their hands, and mischief nestles in her stomach as she licks her lips and begins to see the appeal.

**#40 - Solitary **

When Jin requests to be alone, what he really means is with her.

**#41 - Nowhere **

It's some kind of cosmic joke, this freeze dried romance that builds and fattens and finally folds between them.

**#42 - Neutral **

It's just another day at the office, she keeps telling herself, even as his fingers fumble with her shirt buttons and a questioning hand slides up her thigh.

**#43 - Nuance **

Jin bows his head, narrows his eyes and Nina nods, and in one quick, smooth motion she snaps the man's neck.

**#44 - Near **

On the last day, he gives her no orders but requests she stays until the end, and as the helicopter lowers to the ground their fingertips brush and their shared stare is strong and steady.

**#45 - Natural **

He razes the forest to the ground with a strange, sociopathic zeal and she chokes on the stink of smoke as from the corner of her eye, a woman in white slips between the remaining stumps of the trees and stares at Nina through charred air with eyes the colour of fire.

**#46 - Horizon **

Tokyo is an industrious paradise studded with sparkle and spite, and from above their crazed and corroded city, they watch the sun rise.

**#47 - Valiant **

They race on their motorbikes, kicking up drowning dust trails behind them, and it always makes her smirk at how the traffic wardens quake as they pass, for Jin is Mishima and therefore no different from God in this, _their_ city.

**#48 - Virtuous **

She ushers the angel away, for she is not his redemption nor his martyr nor his salvation, but merely a woman who shares in everything he does.

**#49 - Victory **

She stares down in the abyss, and her lip curls. "Jin put everything he had in this one moment."

**#50 – Defeat**

Sand and sweat and blood, and then nothing but the low hum of the engine beneath her feet, and she sits alone in the compartment as the ruins crumble and crash below.


End file.
